


Don't Want to Wait a Lifetime for Now

by WildWolf25



Series: Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020 (weeks 1 & 4) [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, More fluff than angst in this case, Percico Angst & Fluff Month 2020, Post-Canon, Small mention of Annabeth/Reyna, when you turn 13 a number appears on your wrist that is the age of your soulmate when you meet them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildWolf25/pseuds/WildWolf25
Summary: On Percy’s thirteenth birthday, the first thing he did when he woke up was look at his wrist, eager to see what age his soulmate would be when he met them.The second thing he did was blink, sit up in bed, and stare down at his wrist in confusion.“Seventy-eight?” He read aloud, as those two baffling digits stared back at him.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Series: Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020 (weeks 1 & 4) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863970
Comments: 13
Kudos: 446
Collections: Percico Angst and Fluff Month 2020





	Don't Want to Wait a Lifetime for Now

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder that I have written two of the four weeks for this event here on this account, and the other two on my more mature account (bouquetofwhoopsiedaisies, but please don't follow that account if you're under 18!)
> 
> Week 4 prompts were: Birthday | "I'll always be here for you" | Soulmate Age
> 
> For that last one, this is an AU where, when you turn thirteen, a number appears on your wrist. That number is the age your soulmate will be when you meet them.
> 
> Just wanted to preface this by saying that, while it starts out while they’re kids, they get together a few years after the series ends, when Nico is 18 and Percy is 21. A three year age difference would be weird as kids who are still maturing and hitting developmental milestones, but as you get further and further into adulthood, it’s nothing unusual. I’m in my mid-twenties and have friends three years older than me and three years younger than me; it kind of ceases to be a big deal once you’re out of school, and even less of a big deal as you get even older. 
> 
> I’m also going to say that even within this AU, the age you _meet_ your soulmate is not necessarily the age you _get together with_ your soulmate. That’d get real weird with, like, childhood friends who meet when they’re five, or something.

On Percy’s thirteenth birthday, the first thing he did when he woke up was look at his wrist. 

The second thing he did was blink, sit up in bed, and stare down at his wrist in confusion. 

“Seventy-eight?” He read aloud, as those two baffling digits stared back at him. He flipped back the covers and slid out of bed, holding his wrist as he went to go find his mother. He found her in the kitchen, making blue pancakes with blueberry jam and whipped cream ー Percy’s favorite breakfast that was usually reserved for special occasions. 

“Happy birthday, honey!” Sally looked up with a smile. “So? How old will your soulmate be when you meet them?”

“Seventy-eight,” Percy showed her the inside of his wrist. “Does that mean my soulmate is gonna be an old person? Like, some kind of creep that likes kids?” 

Sally frowned, considering it. “No, I’m sure that’s not the case. A soulmate is someone who is a perfect match for you; _that_ sort of relationship wouldn’t be fit for a soulmate.”

“Then what does it mean?” Percy asked. 

“I think it means that you just might have to wait a long time to meet your soulmate,” Sally said carefully, and Percy’s heart sank. 

“So, I’ll have to go through most of my life without knowing them?” He asked. Suddenly he was so despondent that not even blue pancakes could cheer him up. 

“Oh honey, that’s not that unusual,” Sally hugged him. “Most people don’t meet their soulmates when they’re young, despite what movies say. Thirty to fifty is considered a normal range.”

“That’s not nearly _eighty_ ,” Percy groused. “How old were _you_?”

Sally smiled a little sadly. “On the younger end of the spectrum. I was only twenty-six.”

“And how old was Dad?” Percy almost never asked about his dad, after so many years of pretending he didn’t exist. But after meeting him the previous year and knowing Poseidon’s reasons for needing to stay away, he was trying to have a better opinion of him. And he was curious about this one thing, something that he had never asked about before; whenever it was brought up, Sally sort of waved the question away with an off-handed _“oh, about the same age…”_

Percy’s gaze dropped to his mother’s wrist, but as always, she was wearing a bracelet over the mark. It was made of leather and fitted snugly against her skin, covering the mark, with small beads sewn along the top in shades of blue, like ocean waves that seemed to shift and change with every movement. He had never seen her without it, nor the mark she used it to cover. 

“Ah, I guess I never showed you this,” Sally unfastened the bracelet. “But now that you know about your father, I can tell you the truth. I have to hide it, because it’s not exactly normal…” Sally turned her wrist over and showed him the infinity symbol printed there. She smiled wryly. “It certainly confused me, until I met him.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Percy sighed. “But, I don’t know, Mom… with all the monster attacks and demigod quests and stuff, will I even _make it_ to seventy-eight? I mean, if Mister-Thunder-and-Lightning has his way, I’ll get whacked before I’m even sixteen so I don’t fulfill the prophecy.” 

Sally frowned, her brow furrowing in concern. “Don’t say things like that, Percy.” 

He instantly felt guilty; it couldn’t be easy for a mother to hear her son talk about his impending doom with such blasé. And the last thing he wanted to do was cause her more worry. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, and they both talked about other, more cheerful things. Meanwhile, Percy tried to put his disappointment out of his mind; he supposed he would just have to wait a lifetime to meet his soulmate. 

~~~~~~~

After a year of fending off monster attacks while trying desperately to not get expelled, Percy was relieved for the school year to come to a close and to head off to Camp Half-Blood for a summer of training. He was less relieved to get sent on another quest right off the bat ー this time to retrieve two demigods from a boarding school in Maine. They were very powerful, albeit unknown, which meant that all sorts of monsters were hunting them when Percy, Annabeth, and Grover showed up. There was a girl just a bit younger than him, Bianca, and her very young (slightly annoying, Percy thought) brother, Nico, who looked to be about ten years old. Both were untrained and thoroughly unhelpful in the ensuing fight with the manticore. They were an odd pair, which he supposed made sense when he got them back to Camp and learned that they had been trapped in the Lotus Hotel and Casino for seventy years, meaning that they had been born before World War II. Percy couldn’t really imagine that, and he left them at the Apollo cabin for them to get their injuries treated and get a quick run-down on the current world they had missed. Admittedly, Percy didn’t give the two siblings much thought after that, aside from going on a quest with Bianca and having to stand there, mildly bewildered, while a small child threatened him and demanded he keep his sister safe. It was like a german shepherd being barked at by a chihuahua, he thought. 

Years passed. Percy, against all odds, lived past sixteen and the prophecy was not fulfilled. He and Annabeth started dating, but eventually broke up. It was nice, but they both knew it wouldn’t last; they had met when they were twelve, yet Annabeth’s wrist bore the number 16 and Percy’s the number 78. When Annabeth got together with Reyna, after the war with Gaea, it made sense. Even Percy could see that they were a good fit for each other. He was just glad the two were able to remain friends, after it ended. 

He wondered, not for the first time, if he would _ever_ meet his soulmate. It was exceptionally unusual for demigods to survive into old age. But, he tried to think positively, the situation was getting better, now that the Greek and Roman camps were on friendly terms and New Rome was beginning to open its doors to Greek demigods as a sanctuary from monsters after they got too old for camp. That was what Percy was doing, now ー attending the University of New Rome, while coming back to New York for the summers to train demigods at Camp Half-Blood. A few members of the Seven were doing that as well. Speaking of them…

“I wouldn’t have agreed to sit at this table if I had known you were just going to steal half of my food,” Nico griped, swatting Leo’s hand away from his plate. It was a rare instance when all of the Seven were at Camp Half-Blood for a few days, so Leo had commandeered an old picnic table and dragged it over to the dining pavilion, declaring it “the Argo III” and invited the old crew of the Argo II to eat there together. 

“Sharing is caring, Nico,” Leo swiped a cookie off his plate. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that?”

“And didn’t anyone ever teach _you_ to keep your damn hands off of what doesn’t belong to you?” Nico retorted. 

“Hey, language,” Leo chided. He pointed the cookie at him. “And respect your elders! I’m twenty, you’re eighteen. Have some respect, young man.” 

“I’m eighty-four, so _you_ respect _your_ elders,” Nico shot back, plucking the cookie out of Leo’s hand.

“You’re _whatー_?!” Leo stared at him.

“Born in 1932, so suck it,” Nico bit into his cookie before anyone else could steal it. 

Leo groaned. “I always forget you were trapped in a timeless hotel for seventy years…” 

“Lucky you,” Nico muttered under his breath.

The realization hit Percy so suddenly, it was like being struck with one of Zeus’s lightning bolts. “Wait. You’re eighty-four. So eight years ago, you were seventy-eight?”

Nico arched an eyebrow and gave him a flat look. “That is indeed how arithmetic works, yes.”

“I can tell you’re really from the thirties, if you still call it ‘arithmetic’...” Leo snorted quietly.

“That’s what it is _called_ ,” Nico and Annabeth said at the same time.

Percy felt like he was buzzing with anticipation all through the rest of dinner and the following campfire. As soon as it was over, he caught Nico before he could disappear into Cabin 13 (or worse, shadow-travel away).

“Hey, Nico, can we talk?” Percy asked, tipping his head towards the darkened field of grass that stretched from the pavilion to the beach. With everyone heading back to their cabins for the night, it would be quiet enough for a private conversation. 

Nico nodded, although he looked a little confused by the request. He followed Percy as they walked out of earshot of the other campers. “What’s up?”

Percy looked around to make sure they were alone. “So, I know it’s considered rude to ask, and it’s not my business,” ( _well,_ he thought, _it might be_ ) “but, what is the age of your soulmate on your wrist?”

Nico lifted a brow at him, but other than that, his expression didn’t change. “You’re right, that is rude to ask.” 

“Nico, please,” Percy begged, lowering his voice. 

Nico looked at him silently for several long seconds that seemed to last an eternity. Finally, he tugged up the sleeve of his aviator jacket and bared his wrist for Percy to see. “Thirteen,” he said. “Not that that narrows it down any. Since at the time, I was regularly going back and forth between two camps full of teenagers. Could have been literally anyone.”

“I was thirteen when I met you,” Percy said quietly, his heart pounding in his ears as he turned his wrist over, baring his own mark. “And you were ー technically ー seventy-eight.” 

Nico’s eyes widened as he looked at the marks. “That… that doesn’t necessarily mean we’reー”

“Nico, what other seventy-eight year-old am I going to possibly fall for?” Percy cut him off. “Do you really want to wait another fifty-plus years for me to see if I meet someone in my seventies or eighties, only to figure out then that we could have been together all that time?”

Nico cast his eyes away and shifted his weight, hands shoved in his jacket pockets. “If we were to get together, and then realize we’re not soulmates and break up, I don’t think I’d be able to handle that, Percy. It’d destroy me.” 

Percy’s heart ached, and he suddenly realized it would destroy him too. “Well, isn’t that a pretty good indication that our souls do belong together?” He asked softly.

Nico’s lips twisted into a thin line like he had eaten something bitter. “You don’t even like me. I remember when we met; you hated me.”

“Nico, you asked me about a card game I’d never heard of while I was fighting off a freaking manticore,” Percy reminded him. 

Nico’s eyes snapped over to glare at him. “So I can’t have a partner who is patient with me?”

Shit. Percy rubbed his hands over his face. “No, that’s not what I… Look, I was thirteen and hot-headed and kind of an idiot.” He still was, if the turn of the current conversation was any indication. Percy sighed and dropped his hands to look at Nico. “I did and said a lot of things as a kid that I probably shouldn’t have. Haven’t you?” 

Nico’s expression soured and he looked away. Both of them were probably thinking the same thing ー that at that age, Nico had tried to hand Percy over to his father, told him to bathe in the River Styx, and had tried to bring back his sister’s spirit despite warnings not to. 

“And if you’re worried that I don’t like you even now,” Percy went on. “That’s… Nico, that’s just not true. I respect and admire you so much, and I have for _years_ , even if we didn’t exactly get along when we first met. You’re smart and talented and driven and funnyー”

“Funny?” Nico looked bewildered and a little insulted by that. He cocked his head slightly and his nose crinkled in a way that was positively adorable.

“In a dry, sarcastic kind of humor way,” Percy clarified. “And on top of all that, you’re _cute_ , Nico, you’re super attractive.”

“ _Cute_?” Nico looked even more baffled by that idea. “How the hell am I possibly ‘cute’?”

“I mean, that face you’re making now is pretty cute,” Percy smiled. That earned him a scowl, which was also pretty darn cute, in Percy’s opinion, but he had a feeling that saying as much would end up with him getting kicked. He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, feeling awkward. “If anything, I’m the one who should be worried. You said I wasn’t your type.” 

Nico’s scowl softened into regret and he looked away. “You were with Annabeth. I said that to make you feel better.”

Percy froze. “So… _am_ I your type?” He asked, hope stirring in his chest. 

Nico frowned at the ground and scuffed the toe of his boot into the dirt. “Not my fault if my type is stupidly-hot guys with green eyes and a heart of freaking gold,” he muttered.

Percy grinned. “So I _am_ your type?” 

“Conceited, too, apparently,” Nico rolled his eyes, but at least he was smiling. “Yeah, you are. Happy?”

“Very.” Percy couldn’t stop the wide grin spreading over his face. _Happy_ didn’t even begin to cover it. He felt like he was glowing from the inside. “Can I kiss you?”

Nico froze for a moment, then his head jerked up and he stared at Percy like he had just suggested they fly to the moon or something equally ridiculous. Percy’s heart skipped a beat as panic gripped him; was that too much? Too fast? 

“You don’t know how many years I wanted to hear you say that,” Nico said. His voice was barely above a whisper, like he was afraid it wouldn’t be true. 

Percy smiled and held out his hand, the number 78 stark against his skin in the moonlight. “Well, you’ll never have to wait again,” he promised. “I’ll always be here for you.” 

A small smile warmed Nico’s face and he tentatively placed his hand in Percy’s, letting himself be drawn in. Percy slipped a hand behind his head, fingers woven into dark, silky waves, and tilted his chin up as he leaned down to kiss him. He expected the son of Hades to be cold to the touch, but his lips were warm, and they fit together with Percy’s like they were meant to be. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it! I enjoyed being a part of this event. If you liked this, please check out my other works I wrote for this event as well!


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